


Survive Or Live

by AngelDesaray



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Tragedy, Blood and Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Smut?, Explicit Language, F/M, Fast Zombies, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gross Zombie Descriptions, Gun Violence, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, I haven't decided on Smut yet, Isolation, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin) Swears, Life or Death Situations, Light Angst, Matter of Life and Death, Mild Language, Minor Violence, OC has spent too much time alone, OC needs human contact, POV Female Character, POV Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), POV Multiple, POV Original Character, POV Third Person, Past Violence, Post-Zombie Apocalypse, Romantic Fluff, Scientist Hange Zoë, Survival, Threats of Violence, Violence, Zombies, more tags will come with more chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:41:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22272745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelDesaray/pseuds/AngelDesaray
Summary: After surviving the fall of humanity at the mercy of a parasitic disease that turns its victims into rotten walking corpses (Rotters), Mae Brooks has managed to find a shaky sense of normalcy.  But just Surviving isn’t Living, and she needs to find a sense of humanity soon before she loses all touch with reality and what it means to be human.  Enter a katana-wielding survivor in a tight spot–not a knight in shining armor, perhaps, but she’s not some damsel in distress, either.  So they might be just what they both needed.
Relationships: Hange Zoë & Levi, Hange Zoë & Original Character(s), Hange Zoë & Original Female Character(s), Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin)/Original Character(s), Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin)/Original Female Character(s), Levi/Original Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	1. The Barren World

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Zombie! Attack on Titan](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19388332) by [Gundii](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gundii/pseuds/Gundii). 



> The idea for this Zombie AU fanfic came to me after I read the start of Zombie! Attack on Titan by Gundii, and I highly recommend you follow that story and its incoming chapters. After reading it I got swarm of plot bunnies that I had to rabidly chase down their rabbit hole, and this happened.  
> This is my own unique take on the AOT, Levi Zombie AU concept, and if there are any similarities to other works, it is unintentional.  
> Also I apologize for the shorter-than-my-usual chapter, this is more of an introduction (Since prologue doesn't seem to properly fit what this is in my opinion). Not to mention I'm posting these updates on Tumblr, where my chapters are usually of a shorter length than my usual.

The crunch of broken asphalt beneath her feet made enough sound Mae couldn’t help but cringe inwardly, worried that the sound would be just enough to attract attention to herself. At the moment, there wasn’t anything moving along the street other than herself, but that was only what her light brown eyes could see so far. Her calloused fingers shifted slightly along the bowstring she pulled tighter at the thought of what could be lurking out of sight in the shadows, the index finger of her other hand rolling over the wooden shaft of her knocked arrow. Her shoulder rolled, adjusting the left strap of her hiker’s backpack that had started to slide down her shoulder, managing by some miracle to avoid getting her shoulder-length auburn hair caught under the strap in the process.

At least it was still decently light for now, even if that would be a bad sign if she left with a light bag.

Eyes on the two story white house several paces ahead of her and to the left, Mae stepped around a stray rusted car bumper and quickly approached the building, eyes darting around for any sign of movement. A gurgling followed by the sound of shuffling feet drew her attention to the right side of the house just in time for Mae to see a Rotter shamble around the corner, not yet noticing her presence.

The walking corpse stumbled across the dead grass of the house’s front lawn, pustule spotted flesh hanging in strips or appearing shriveled and wasted on the once-human creature’s frame. Dried blood and fresh ooze from ruptured pustules smeared across the remains of sallow skin, frayed hair, and tattered clothes. This Rotter was missing an eye, which meant it wasn’t fresh since the larger parasites tried to move on to another host after about a month, and the eyes were their choice of exit.

More asphalt crunched under her foot, and the Rotter spun around off-balance but still upright, focusing on Mae and the noise she’d made. Its remaining foggy eye focused on her as she raised her takedown recurve bow, arrow already knocked and drawn and simply holding so she made sure she made her shot count. A rattling snarl regurgitated from its gaping mouth as it sudden lunged at her, twitching as its sprint hurried it towards her. The Rotter only made it three steps before Mae released her arrow, which sunk right into the open eye socket and through its head.

The snarling stopped with a gurgle, the Rotter collapsing to the ground as Mae hurried over, hoping her arrow would be retrievable.

“Shame on you, Dave, sneaking up on me like that, it’s rude,” she muttered under her breath, boot on its neck as she yanked the arrow back and quickly moved away in case any of the squiggly parasites tried to latch onto her as a host.

It looked like it could still be used. Good.

Another snarl–much closer now–had her quickly backing away from the sound, knocking and drawing the arrow as fast as she could, loosing the arrow on instinct more than aim. It sunk into the back of the advancing Rotter’s throat, which didn’t do any good killing it, unfortunately. As soon as her drawing hand was free of the arrow it reached for the machete at her waist, and she swung with as much force as possible, the blade slicing nicely into its forehead. It slumped forward and she backed away to avoid the Rotter falling on her, yanking the machete out along the way.

“Oh, Mary-Ann, you’re here, too? Why didn’t you say anything?” Mae continued, wiping the machete off in the grass and scowling at the now broken arrow still sticking out of its throat.

_Perfect._

Still holding the machete firmly in hand, Mae made sure to air on the side of caution–more than usual, anyway–and do a quick check around the house to make sure there weren’t any more Rotters lurking around.

Thankfully she managed to loop back around to the front without seeing any more Rotters, glancing back at the two she’d already killed as if to make sure they were still dead.

“How are the kids?” she asked a little louder. With a grimace, Mae looked away and made her way up the steps to the house.

_Okay, that’s a little too morbid, Mae, shut up._

The house creaked with her every step, causing her paranoia to rear its head again. Every sound made her twitch uncomfortably, her teeth on edge with every step.

She passed by the living room quickly, a goal of the kind of supplies she was looking for firmly in mind. She went to the kitchen, the obvious choice, scouring open cabinets and looking for anything that might still be good. It looked like someone had already searched the house, but there were a few bouillon cube packages shoved in the back, an open and spilled box telling her someone had tried to taste the powdery cubes to see if it was an edible, but quickly decided otherwise.

Their loss was her gain. Thank God she knew how to use these things.

“Maybe there is still a God,” she murmured, shoving the beef and chicken bouillon packages into her back, including the open box. She’d been hoping to find another box of some kind of pasta, rice, canned meat, but even though she’d scoured three streets of homes, so far no luck. She was starting to come to accept that this town had already been picked over. She’d still check all the houses (eventually) just to make sure she didn’t miss any hidden gems like the bouillon, but she wasn’t optimistic about what she’d find overall.

If all else failed, she could see if there was anything left over in the local ransacked convenience store.

Heading upstairs, Mae started with the bathroom to see if she could find anything more medically beneficial. She had a supply of meds she kept carefully guarded she’d had ever since this whole mess started, but it never hurt to try and find more.

There was a package of cotton balls under the sink, and she didn’t hesitate to pilfer the two washcloths and one towel, but she couldn’t find anything else she thought might be of use. She’d even take a pair of tweezers to help this scavenging trip feel a little more productive.

After that it was simply a matter of looking for any kind of scrap she could reuse. The bedrooms had some clean clothes inside them that she picked through sparingly, only packing the best into her backpack so she could use the cloth for any need that arose.

“You’d think a hoard of goats came through and ate everything, with how little there is around here,” Mae said softly, sighing as she left the house, bow in hand again and eyes scanning the street for any more Rotters. She gave the ones she’d killed earlier a wide berth when she saw that the pustules on their bodies were bursting and oozing now that the hosts were dead, not wanting to get too close and risk the ooze landing on her. It was only infectious if the parasites got to you, but the ooze did a good job of masking the smaller parasites, and it was better to be safe than sorry.

Which was why she was wearing a flannel, jeans, and boots despite it being mid-spring. It was better that as little skin was exposed as possible.

Mae wiped the sweat on her brow with her flannel sleeve, continuing through the small town’s residential area while she prattled on with utter nonsense to herself and any Rotter she came across.

“Do you think there’s any other perks to being covered head to toe in warm weather, despite all the sweat and the lowered risk of getting infected? Think it helps protect me from getting a sunburn? That’s an annoyance I don’t want to deal with during the apocalypse, though I doubt anyone is tearing apart any Wal-Marts trying to find sunscreen. Except maybe Rotters trying to get to Annabelle hiding _behind_ the sunscreen. She probably should have tried to hide under the giant teddy bears. Or is it the circus where you find those? I wonder if I could make a giant ass teddy bear chair out of one of those. It’s not like there’s any dumbasses around to judge me for buying a giant teddy bear to sit in like a weird armchair…Er, or like I’m going to be buying it, since money’s useless for anything but toilet paper or tissues these days.”

She quieted her ramblings and slowed down, eyes suddenly drawn to the abandoned daycare on her right. The cloudy glass was busted out and littered what once was probably a neatly trimmed lawn, quarantine sheets and caution tape fluttering weakly in the breeze. A filth-covered doll was ripped almost all the way through the middle, resting between two broken panes of glass still jutting out from the bottom of a window.

She tore her eyes away with a lump in her throat, mood souring rapidly as she noticed the legless Rotter trying to drag its way over to her, what had once been Sunday-best clothes now dirt and blood stained tatters.

“You’d think I’d be used to seeing this kind of thing by now, but every now and then, you see one that just…” she started to say to the Rotter, but the words died down, tasting like ash in her mouth as she watched the thing’s filthy nails clawed its way towards her feet.

_It’s come down to me talking absolute nonsense at mindless creatures that want to eat me, huh? Something I’m starting to do on the regular…_

Mae angled her head up at the sky, squinting at the sun high above her in silence for several long moment until she couldn’t stare at the bright sky any longer.

“…God, I really am going crazy, aren’t I?”

No one answered. There was just the continued raspy growls of the Rotter whose fingers had almost reached her boots. Seeing its proximity, Mae unstrapped her machete again, scowling at the creature.

“It’s because you’re terrible company, Steve,” she said bitingly, ramming the machete into the creature’s head and waiting until it stopped twitching to pull it free, making a point not to glance back behind her towards the depressing scene of the daycare as she moved forward a little faster, wiping the machete off in the grass of the next home she saw.

* * *

By the time she left the residential district and started to pick her way through the ransacked stores of the abandoned town–a few arrows lighter than when she’d started, but her pack a little heavier–the sun was starting to set, warning her that she needed to start heading back.

It was amazing how many potentially useful meds were passed over in a panic when people were only looking for the familiar drugs like ibuprofen or acetaminophen in stores. It also gave Mae a reason to be overwhelmingly grateful for her occupation before the world went to shit. If it hadn’t been for her pre-apocalypse background, she wouldn’t know anything about most of the medications that were now stuffed into her pack. In the mess of abandoned useless knickknacks and crushed, spoiled foodstuffs, she’d also managed to find a bottle of iron supplements, and heading back into the employee break room where their lockers were, she managed to find elastic bandages, and a bottle of ibuprofen after picking a few padlocks on the employee lockers.

Not a bad haul at all. Far less food than she would have liked to find, but she had enough stored up it wouldn’t be a disaster if she had to wait to raid another town for food a little further down the line.

She kicked a stray stuffed basketball plush aside, pushing her hair back out of her face as she made her way back to the main road, machete once more in her free hand in case any infected had gathered outside. To her surprise, there was only one standing in the street, twitching along it’s jagged sprint towards her once it had noticed her. She swung her machete into its brain just like the rest, a small frown on her face as it dropped to the ground in front of her. She crouched down in front of it–still a safe distance away, though.

“Any idea where your friends are? I expected to see far more of you Rotters shambling around town,” she asked, even pausing a few seconds as if waiting for an answer. “It’s like they have somewhere better to be…I’m offended.”

Mae pushed back up to her full height of five feet six inches–and three quarters, never forget the three quarters that brought her so close to _seven_ inches–shifting her hiking backpack to a more comfortable position. She put away the machete for now and returned to her bow, knocking an arrow but not drawing the string back all the way as she walked casually back the way she’d come, eyes scanning her surroundings and ears listening for the tell-tale sounds of Rotters. If she’d seen more coming into town, she would have been a lot more cautious, but because of how scarce they had been through town all day, she was a little more relaxed going back through the area she’d already cleared.

A _little_ relaxed. She wasn’t stupid, Rotters could still show up when she least expected–they had a knack for doing that. She wouldn’t have survived this long if she had ever let her guard _all the way_ down. Even now, she couldn’t decide if this stroke of luck with the scarcity in Rotters was invigorating or unsettling.

As she’d suspected, retracing her steps through town was even less eventful than when she’d foraged her way through it, with Mae only coming across the occasional Rotter here and there. Perhaps something had drawn the attention of most of the infected to the other side of town, and that was where they all were? Wherever they were, she wasn’t going to complain. She was simply going to throw her pack into the back seat of the truck with the two gasoline tanks she’d filled yesterday, and head back home to get some rest. After such a slow-going scavenging trip, she felt drained–the kind that came from constant disappointment and even some boredom.

 _Not to mention months since I saw another_ living _person–and that was from a distance; I didn’t even get involved. Didn’t like the look of them…_

She was finally understanding the true horror of being driven to madness from isolation. Talking to rotting corpses and the sky was only going to get her so far.

Dwelling on the thoughts of her own state of sanity only served to make her view the overall silence of the town as irksome, a scowl on her face when she reached the home garage she’d hidden her truck in while she scavenged around town, muttering unintelligible nonsense about a world record for the quiet game as she opened the back door and threw in her pack, slammed the back door shut, and climbed into the driver’s seat.

A glance at the fuel gage told her the four wheel drive vehicle only had a little less than half a tank left. Enough to get her back home, but she’d have to fill up once she arrived. At least she had two more tanks in the back seat.

She kept the windows down as she cruised back through the residential streets, partially to listen for any sounds of Rotters, and partially to let the cool breeze blessedly blow against her sweaty face.

With several streets left to go before the houses started spreading out instead of being so packed together, the edge of town mere minutes away, Mae finally heard the sound she’d been dreading. The distant sound of an angry hive of snarling Rotters, growing closer with alarming speed. She thought she heard it ahead of her and on her right, instinctively rolling up the passenger’s side window to keep Rotters from flinging themselves through the opening as her head turned towards the sound, eyes scanning her immediate surroundings as her foot put a little more pressure on the gas, ready to peel out of town the first visual sign she had of an approaching hoard.

Finally, her eyes spotted a roiling mass of bodies squeezing its way down one of the narrow alleys between homes, more in the next alley, and the next, and–

Mae’s foot was already pressing down on the gas to give the truck a burst of speed and race by the incoming hoard before she finished processing the sight of the second alley full of Rotters. The idle wonder crossed her mind if it had been the sound of her truck which had drawn their attention–which didn’t seem likely to her–or something else.

A sudden thud and bounce of the truck bed, plus the brief flash of a shadow being cast over the truck, caused Mae to tap on the brake of her truck for the briefest second before survival instincts reminded her there was a hoard descending on her, and now was not the time to stop the truck. But there could very well be a Rotter in her truck bed, and she did not want one of the infected to eat her while she was dri–

“ _Fuck_!”

Rotters didn’t curse, especially not loud enough she could hear it in the driver’s seat as the truck shuddered from her momentary tap on the breaks and something seemed to violently shift in the truck bed.

Since the road ahead was temporarily open, Mae risked glancing back to see what was happening.

The survivalist in her noticed the terrifyingly sized hoard racing after her in a mass of unnaturally twitching bodies, with a few clinging to the edges of the truck bed and snapping their jaws furiously at something within.

The rest of her focused on the figure that was sitting up with its back to the truck’s cab, one hand removing itself from its place pressed against the back of the head of a man with black undercut hair, a black and green scarf tied around his face with the fabric covering everything below his eyes.

Steel grey blue eyes that, as his head turned just enough to regard Mae in the driver’s seat of the truck, focused on her with all it’s hardened intensity.

“ _Drive_!”


	2. The Man From the Sky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly, I feel I should clarify that these are FAST zombies. Not “World War Z” Fast, but still fast. Secondly, I’m taking a gander and seeing how I do writing from Levi’s POV. If I botch this, I’ll continue with strictly Mae’s POV cause if that’s the case I feel I’ll do better writing from the POV of someone that can’t see his thought process, lol. If I don’t botch this, then I’ll continue writing the chapters from the POV of whoever fits the chapter best, so you’ll continue to get Levi POVs.

**_(Earlier)_ ** _ *Levi POV* _

Soft thumps marked the steps of the horse walking at a steady pace in the grass, water lapping against the human placed rock edge of the large pond next to the apartments at the edge of town. Trees framed the edges of the pond--except for the side the horse strode across--temporarily obscuring the goal of the horse’s rider from sight.

Levi’s grip tightened on the reins, the soft crackle of the leather of his fingerless gloves against the leather of the reins reaching his ears, eyes searching for any signs of ghouls. He was on the edge of town, but that didn’t mean shit--there could still be just as many infected on the outskirts of town as there tended to be in town. He had Scout walk in the grass to muffle the sound of her hooves instead of them clacking on the asphalt, though it gave him less room to maneuver if there was something on the other edge of the trees besides what he was here for. But he’d rather take the risk of tight quarters than the risk of attracting more infected to him.

Besides, he wasn’t going to linger or be here long, like the other times he’d come out here. This was just a quick one and done trip, and he wasn’t even going into town. That was why the large military duffle bag on his back was empty aside from the two more large duffle bags packed inside it. He wasn’t here to pick through abandoned homes--he had a certain thing in mind, and he knew exactly where to find it.

Levi scanned the tree line across from him on the other side of the pond, noting that there seemed to be one of the ghouls shambling just under the canopy of trees. It didn’t seem to be headed in the direction he was going, but he’d have to remember it was there, and keep an eye out for it in case it changed course. At the thought of upcoming confrontations with infected, he shifted his scarf around his face to cover his nose and mouth, making sure it was secure.

Just as he was about to reach the tree line just ahead of him that was blocking the field from view, he glanced down the alley to his left, expression darkening at the sight of a group of infected at the other end of the alley. They hadn’t seen him and Scout as they passed, so he still had time. He’d have to work quietly and quickly, and it would probably be safer to leave through the woods instead of the way he came or through town. It would be longer, but at least he was on a horse instead of using a vehicle that took gas, otherwise he’d have to worry about wasting fuel, too.

Scout pranced nervously below Levi as they passed the alley, with Levi leaning over enough to reassuringly rub the mare’s neck. She didn’t make any other noise, thankfully, so he prompted her onward with a gentle press of his heels into her sides, splitting his attention enough to keep an eye on the alley they’d just passed and keeping an eye on the path ahead of him.

In a few more strides, Levi finally broke past the trees and set his sights on the hayfield he’d been headed for. It was sizable enough to give him all the hay he needed--he had to use the hay sparingly, but it was enough.

Levi pulled Scout to an abrupt stop, though the mare--starting to panic--took a few sideways steps forward with an audible whinny.

“Dammit,” he cursed, taking in his current situation.

There were ghouls in the field, a bunch of them, and more in the tree lines framing the field. Every one of them looked towards him and Scout at the sound of the mare’s whinny. Levi didn’t hesitate to turn Scout back around, intending to head back the way he came at a full sprint, but the infected he’d seen at the end of the alley had also heard the noise, as well as the growing angry buzz of the gathering soon-to-be hoard, and were pouring out of the alley at alarming speeds. They weren’t sprinting for them yet, but as soon as the infected had Scout and Levi in sight…

Levi spun Scout back around, hoping he could find some kind of path through the infected in the hayfield and trees in front of and to the right of him. The alley infected had already cut off his path back the way he came, and there were two apartment buildings standing flush against one another on his immediate left, so his only way was forward. He didn’t give himself time to think it through too much, prompting Scout to launch forward, eyes looking for an opening, an empty alley--

A snarl directly behind him had him reaching for one of the weapons strapped at both sides of his waist, drawing the katana and turning just enough to shove it through the head of the ghoul that was just about to sink its teeth into Scout’s leg. The infected from the alley had already sped up, and were swarming behind Scout.

_ Why can’t these fuckers be a tad bit slower? _

It was too late to get them both out of there.

“Shit,” Levi spat, already kicking his feet free of the stirrups and letting go of the reins before Scout suddenly reared back with an agonized sound, the ghouls already sinking their teeth into the mare. As she reared back, Levi let himself fall to the left, thankfully a little more controlled since he’d been prepared for it, aiming to land on the side where his empty katana sheath was and not on the side with his still-sheathed wakizashi was.

As he was falling, his first priority was ‘ _ don’t fall on the goddamn swords _ ,’ which quickly turned into ‘ _ don’t get bit _ ’ once he felt himself connect with the ground, rolling with his momentum and coming up swinging as he heard the snarling ghouls closing in on him as well.

He tried not to listen to the sounds Scout made behind him as he kicked the ghoul he’d lobotomized away from him and into three more that had been lunging his way, drawing the wakizashi once he was on his feet and ready to move.

A decent portion of the ghouls were trying to make their way to Scout--Levi swallowed the lump in his throat at the thought of the sudden silence from the mare--but as infected discovered they couldn’t get through the bulk that had gotten there first, their attention was turning to Levi. With ghouls on all sides of him but one, it was obvious where he needed to go.

Levi launched forward without hesitation, sidestepping two knocked over infected that tried to grab at him as he rushed forward, burying his katana into the head of one ghoul, then the wakizashi in another, dodging the third as he pulled the blades free just to embed them in two more. He didn’t dare slow down, the snarling behind him telling him he had a following that would pounce on him the moment his step faltered. He just needed to make it into the alley up ahead, which only two ghouls were standing near at the moment--it was a briefly open window that was going to close as soon as the ghouls coming out of the tree line up ahead spotted him.

He was already prepped to swing and decapitate the two ghouls by the time he reached them, refusing to let two measly infected get between him and freedom from the gathering horde. Taking the final turn into the alley at a full sprint, he almost ran smack into a smaller but still tightly packed group that was already halfway down the alley. His wakizashi moved instinctively to slice through the head of the ghoul that had been further than the rest down the alley, one that had tried to grab him as he made his turn.

No time to stop, no time to try and cut through the group before the rest of the horde caught up, and no way to go back as his pursuers slapped against the side of the building with guttural snarls, quickly closing up the other end of the alley. He sheathed both blades and backed up only two steps, reaching out a hand and grabbing the railing of the fire escape on his right, hauling himself over the metal bars and up onto the first flight of stairs before booking it up each flight, skipping two, three stairs at a time if he could.

The ghouls were quick to start shoving themselves up the stairs in a twitching mass, slowed down only slightly by the struggle of all of them trying to fight their way up the narrow stairs. Levi felt his ire spark as he looked down at his pursuers.

_ Fuck fire escapes with stairs going to the ground--why couldn’t they just stick with the classic ladder halfway down? _

He went all the way to the top, avoiding the door once he heard a body slam against it and the snarling on the other side. Looking around and cursing the fact there wasn’t a ladder to the roof, Levi went with the last option he could see as the ghouls continued to push up the fire-escape. He had seconds to think and act before he became a chew toy.

He planted one foot on the railing of the fire escape, looking up at the roof and judging the distance from the railing to the roof’s edge while his hand reached out to rest against the side of the building for balance.

“At least if you fall, those RNDs won’t be what kills you,” he muttered to himself as he hauled himself up into a very precarious standing position on top of the fire escape railing, the ominous creaking informing him the metal wouldn’t hold him long enough to have second thoughts.

_ Jump! _

Levi’s hands blessedly connected with the roof’s edge, the scream of the railing below after his kickoff making his gut twist as he hurried to pull himself up onto the ledge. A hand wrapped around his ankle, the snarling below becoming much louder as he glared back at the ghoul that had latched onto him, nailing it in the face with a good kick up against the wall to bash its head in and make it let go of him. Once the ghoul was gone, he was able to pull himself all the way up and over the ledge, rolling away from the edge before pushing himself up.

All he did was buy time. He needed to think of a way out of this mess.

Levi hurried over to the edge of the apartment building, making his way along all four sides to quickly take note of his situation. He grimaced at the sight of ghouls swarming the spot where Scout went down, as well as the sight of more and more infected flocking to the sound of the frenzied mob trying to get to him from the fire escape.

That was his most pressing issue. If he lingered here too long, they’d climb over each other and reach the roof, and he’d really be cornered. He couldn’t stay up here, but he couldn’t go down there, either.

Levi looked out over the town, reorienting himself with its layout as his mind raced to give him a solution. There were a few more apartment buildings lined up next to one another heading deeper into town, before they gave way to houses. In that same direction, there was a main road that would lead him out of town and at least get him started on the path back to the cabin. Maybe, if he could move fast enough, he could find a vehicle that still had a little gas, anything that could get him moving faster than the infected and back to the cabin. He just needed a way out. And if all else failed he could try to find somewhere to hole up until the frenzy died down and he had a better chance to make a break for it.

Looking back momentarily at the sound of a louder snarl and slapping sound, Levi could see the infected were almost piled high enough to make it over the roof, able to see an arm smacking against the ledge.

Deeper into town it was, then.

Backing up so he could have a decent running start, Levi set his sights on the next apartment roof and took off, sprinting past the ghouls as one of them finally cleared the roof. But he was already moving, foot landing solidly on the apartment roof ledge to jump the relatively short distance to the next roof.

Jumping from the apartment roofs wasn’t that difficult--they were close together, and the roofs were flat, which made keeping his momentum and his landings easier. It was the homes up ahead that had him worried. They were lower, and some of them had slanted sections. He’d have to work to stay on the roof and not roll off into the waiting jaws of some lucky infected.

Not to mention, the sounds of the impacts from his jumps was drawing the attention of the ghouls, some of them catching sight of him, and his initial pursuers trying to follow in the direction he was going. Because of that, he still had a horde following him.

_ This might not work. _

He might end up stranded on some house roof until he starved.

He shoved the stray thought aside as he jumped onto the roof of the last apartment--he’d worry about that later, if it came to it. Right now, he needed to focus on not falling off the upcoming house roofs, considering there was a slant to them--some steeper than others.

He was airborne a few seconds longer once he jumped from the last apartment, eyes fixed on his goal of the flattest part of the home roof in front of him. As soon as his feet connected, he crumpled, rolled, and came right back up onto his feet, keeping in mind these roofs weren’t going to be flat like the others.

Some of the home roofs were flat enough he could run across without any problems, while others were steep enough to slow him down. He could pull himself up over ridges, and step in the valleys and corners where different sections of the roof were connected to make sure he didn’t fall off the steeper houses. When he did pull himself over roof ridges, he let himself slide down the other side to try and conserve energy, kicking off before he reached the edge to propel himself up onto the next roof.

And so the cycle repeated, Levi’s arms growing sore from repeatedly catching himself and pulling himself up and over rooftop outcroppings. A few times he slipped, but he managed to catch himself and stop the fall each time. He powered through the soreness and the near misses, keeping himself moving forward from roof to roof, eyes on the infected following him down on the ground, as if waiting for him to fall.

Halfway to the main road, he heard the noise--a faint and increasingly loud guttural sound different from the snarling ghouls below. Looking up and off into the distance, he saw the sun glint off of something moving down the main road.

Levi reacted instinctively to the sight, feet moving faster against the sloped surfaces and the burning in his limbs temporarily forgotten as he rushed to get to the main road before what he’d spotted could pass him by. The ghouls continued their twitching sprint after him down below, reminding him he’d have one shot. The closer he came to the main road and the closer the vehicle came, Levi was able to get a better look at it, noting the fact that it was a silver truck heading in his direction.

Even better.

It was a bit more of a leap to get to the last house, since it was facing the main road instead of side by side with the houses that were facing their own suburban lane. Levi’s hand slipped on the ridge of the last house, but he kept his grip with his other hand, pulling himself up and over before letting himself slide down onto the roof of the extended garage with a thud. The infected were shoving their way through the alleys and spaces between the homes, now, too close for comfort, and about to get even closer.

For once, Levi thanked the panic of the initial outbreak as he dropped down from the garage and onto an abandoned car sitting in the driveway. In three quick steps he was able to leap onto a second car that had blocked the first in its driveway. They were the last two stepping stones he needed to get close enough to the main road, and just as the truck started to speed past where he stood, he made one last leap, willing himself not to miss.

As soon as he felt his feet connect with the metal of the truck bed, he coiled, trying to minimize the damage of the fall into a  _ moving vehicle _ . Pain shot up his leg, causing him to collapse onto his back, breath knocked out of him as pain blossomed through his chest as well.

It hurt, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been if he’d--

It was at that moment the driver actually hit the fucking breaks, then the gas again, which caused him to jolt in the truck bed with enough force to slam the back of his head into the footlocker, black spots temporarily dotting his vision.

“ _ Fuck _ !”

Thumps against the car and the sounds of snapping jaws and snarling prompted Levi to push himself back up, hand on the back of his head as he took in the sight of some of the faster infected already latching onto the truck trying to get into the bed. The hand that had been holding his throbbing head dropping to draw one of his blades, Levi turned just enough to make out the driver, who seemed to be momentarily focused on their new passenger instead of the road ahead. Considering there were a few more abandoned cars up ahead and there would possibly be more ghouls--

“Drive!” he snapped at them in a shout, turning his full attention back to the leeches trying to hitch a ride as well. His leg still seared with pain, chest tight with stabbing pain lancing through him when he inhaled or turned a certain way. Getting into a kneeling position with his injured leg resting along the truck bed, Levi pulled out both blades, flipping them around into a reversed grip as he took in the five or six ghouls trying to climb into the truck, possibly losing their legs in the process.

His narrowed eyes focused on the ghouls snapping at him along the truck bed’s left edge, slicing straight through the head of the closest infected, turning to slice through the next, then back for another, hardly moving from his spot besides a few turns.

Suddenly, a woman’s voice yelled at him from within the cab of the truck. “Are you infected? Were you bit?”

Levi felt his ire prickle again--despite the fact it was a justified question--jabbing the katana through the eye of the ghoul clinging to the tailgate since it had almost managed to pull itself into the truck bed. “ _ No _ ! Just fucking drive!”

His shout was thankfully answered with the truck speeding up, Levi temporarily placing his knuckles against the ground to steady himself as she accelerated. The truck bounced, something thudding against the top of the truck, prompting Levi to look up in time to see a ghoul body rolling over the top of the cab. He stabbed it through the head as it passed, giving it a push to make sure it fell outside of the truck bed.

While Levi was busy taking care of the infected the driver hit, another spilled into the truck, hands wrapping around his ankle as he pushed the one out of the truck bed. Immediately he attention turned to the one that had grabbed him as it tried to pull itself into biting distance. As he shoved his wakizashi through its skull, one of the pustule clusters on its arm ruptured. A translucent parasitic worm roughly as long as his hand burst out, landing on the jeans covering his injured leg and already squirming around to look for skin to burrow beneath.

Injured or not, Levi didn’t hesitate to shift so that the side of his leg pressed the parasite against all his weight and the truck bed, sweeping his leg for good measure.

“Shit,” he gasped as the spots reappeared in his vision from the pain, blinking rapidly to clear them so he could make sure the parasite died. The thing was flailing across the truck bed, and Levi braced himself up as he reached out with his good foot and brought down his heel as hard as he could over and over again, crushing the parasite below the heel of his boot until it wasn’t moving anymore.

With the truck speeding up, the infected had finally started to fall behind, none of them able to catch up to the truck as it peeled out of town. As houses gave way to trees and fields, Levi finally sat back with a groan, back against the footlocker, head against the truck’s back window. The pain and soreness started to claw its way back to the front of his mind as the adrenaline faded, a hand gripping at the left leg he’d injured. A few investigative prods made him think that it might only be sprained, fractured at worst. The pain in his chest felt like bruised ribs after a few tender probes that resulted in soft hisses escaping his lips. The rest of him was simply sore from all the running, jumping, and climbing.

After taking stock of his injuries, his attention focused on the gore and dirt that covered him from head to toe. Temporarily setting aside the disgust at his current state, he checked over himself, making sure there weren’t any leftover slimy parasites trying to find an opening in the clothes that  _ almost  _ covered him entirely. There was plenty of gore all over him, dirt and grass stains on his jeans and zipped up jacket from when he’d fallen off Scout, and it was all drying onto the clothes, which meant more scrubbing later when he had the time to clean up again. He didn’t see anything squirming on him, not even in the shit that oozed from the ghoul’s burst pustules. It must have only been the one he’d already stepped on earlier, then; he’d actually had a stroke of luck in the middle of all that bullshit. As for all the filth, unfortunately there wasn’t anything he could do about it in a stranger’s bare truck bed except let it dry.

Now that he knew what shape he was in…

Levi turned his head to peer into the truck bed, the figure of the woman inside hard to distinguish through the darkened truck windows. He only knew it was a woman driving because of the voice earlier. As for distinguishing features, all he could see now that he had more time to look was hair going at least to her shoulders. Lowering his gaze to the back seat, he could make out a large backpack--probably a hiking pack--two gas cans, and a bow lying atop the supplies. She was on her way back to somewhere safe after a supply run, then, and either didn’t need much or couldn’t find much from the amount of supplies he could see.

Levi turned his attention back to the passing scenery of trees and fields. One hand stayed on his injured leg, while the other rested casually on one of his blades. He was waiting for the inevitable moment that his unwilling rescuer would pull over and kick him out of the car, trying to come up with a plan for what he would do, then. He’d have to limp his way back to the cabin, no matter how far it was, and would be stranded up there recovering until either he needed to go looking for more supplies or he got better, with the former being more likely.

It was also entirely possible once she pulled over she’d just shoot him, depending on the kind of person he’d hopped into the truck of. At the time, he hadn’t had any other options, so he didn’t give himself the luxury of wondering what kind of person he was choosing to cross paths with. Now, however, he could worry about whether or not jumping in this truck bed was going to ultimately lead to him getting shot.

Levi gripped the handle of his blade a little tighter. If that was the case, he wouldn’t let her even try to kill him without putting up a fight, whether he was injured or not. And if she did try, and he won, at least he’d have an easier way back to the cabin than walking on foot, with some supplies to boot.

Yet, as the trees continued to pass and the minutes ticked by, the woman didn’t pull over. She kept driving, with no signs of stopping, only slowing to take a few turns. So...she had no intentions of pulling over and kicking him out of the car, it seemed, but was rather...what, kidnapping him? Could it even be considered kidnapping if he chose to be in the truck? No, he chose to be there, he had control of his own situation, this wasn’t kidnapping--though he didn’t like the thought of being taken somewhere he didn’t know by a complete stranger.

If he wasn’t already injured, he’d consider jumping from the car and making a run for it the next time she slowed down to take a turn. Though if she really wanted to, it wouldn’t be hard for her to catch up to him again anyway in his current state.

The truck slowed to turn one more time, this time onto a dirt road almost entirely hidden from view of the main road by trees and bushes. The canopy above helped shield his eyes from the sun, the cool of the shade a blessed relief from the heat of his black turtleneck and tan paratrooper tactical jacket. He would have peeled off the jacket to cool down some--and be a little less filthy--if it hadn’t been for the fact he was anticipating having to make a run for it at any moment. The road was bumpy and uneven, the truck bed bouncing along the rougher terrain and jostling his leg. He let out a soft hiss with a few particularly painful spikes racing through him, grip tightening on the blade in his other hand. He had to lean away a few times to avoid getting whacked in the face by low hanging tree branches, wondering how much longer she was going to follow this stupid road.

Finally, at long last, the canopy melded away, the sun broke through again, a clearing stretched out in front of the truck and all around Levi as the truck gradually started to slow down. Looking to his left as the truck went deeper into the clearing and more came into view, Levi saw a large open field, a classic weathered red barn almost at the far end, a hayfield in front, with a dilapidated fence circled around both. Looking to the right, towards where the dirt road and the truck were curling, and much closer than the barn, there was a two story blue farmhouse. It wasn’t on the edge of the clearing--there was still open space behind it, but it was more the size of a backyard than another open field.

As the car slowed to a stop in front of the farmhouse, it was clear that they’d finally arrived.

Levi placed his katana across his lap, waiting until she got out of the car to actually lift it. These days, it was better safe than sorry, and he wasn’t about to take any chances.

He heard the truck door open, and the sound of boots thumping against the ground. Straightening up, Levi tightened the grip on his katana, turning towards the sound, tense and ready for a fight if it came to it.

As soon as the other woman appeared within his range of vision, Levi drew his katana on her, stopping her in her tracks with the blade hovering in front of her chest. A tense moment passed between the two of them, steel blue and light brown eyes sizing each other up. He knew he looked like shit, but he wouldn’t hesitate to fight if he needed to, and it seemed she could see that.

Good. Then it was time to get some answers on why she’d brought him all the way out here.

Levi spoke first.

“What do you intend to do now?”


	3. One Way Barter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn’t see anyone tell me “Never attempt to write Levi again!” so I’m going to assume its safe for me to continue with Levi POV in the future, lol. Also, disclaimer–I know jack s*** about medical stuff, what is in here is me googling and then bulls***ing about knowing what I’m talking about, lol. Finally, please have mercy on me, I AM still feeling out Levi’s character from a writing perspective.

**_*Mae’s POV*_ **

“What do you intend to do now?”

Mae held perfectly still, eyes not on the blade whose edge rested across her chest, but instead on the man who was on the other end. He looked rough–covered in gore and dirt stains, body tense, and those steel blue eyes hard and focused solely on her once again.

“I intended to find out who jumped into my truck. Since they stayed instead of hopping out of the truck at the first turn.” She tilted her head curiously at him. “So why’d you stay along for the ride?”

No response. At least not a verbal one. She felt like he was studying her far more closely, and she felt the blade waver just a hair–she wouldn’t have been able to see it, but since it was right against her chest, she _felt_ it.

“Okay then, different question. How the hell did you end up with what may have been all the rotters in town on your tail? Cause you don’t seem like the type for _stupidity_ to be the reason.”

His eyes narrowed slightly at that comment, but again, he didn’t say anything. He was just letting her run her mouth, probably figuring her out more and more with every passing second while she continued to only get stoic silence from him and the smallest reaction twitches here and there.

With a slightly bitter laugh, Mae raised a hand to run it through her hair, shaking her head. “Longer than I can keep track of not seeing another living person, I finally run into someone that so far hasn’t given me a reason not to trust them, and they hardly say a word outside of cursing me about my driving. Figures.”

“Seems you’ve forgotten something,” he finally said, the blade at her chest applying a little more pressure as a reminder.

Mae smirked, gesturing towards the blade. “Oh, that? That’s just how people say hello these days.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “That doesn’t make you too friendly, then.”

“That’s because you didn’t see my hand on my gun when I first walked out here.”

It was true–her hand had hovered over the gun holster at her back as soon as she opened the truck door. When he hadn’t immediately sliced her in half or shish kabobbed her with his katana, she’d let her hand _slowly_ lower from the gun, and her hand hadn’t come near it, since. She got the sense if he’d planned on killing her, he would have done it by now.

He actually didn’t look surprised at her statement. It was more like she’d confirmed a suspicion…which meant he probably knew she’d had a hand on a weapon the first half of that conversation. It wasn’t just his blade that was sharp, then. Good.

She held out her other hand in an offer to shake it, that way both were visible to him and neither were near a weapon. “I’m Mae.”

Yet another silence passed that Mae spent being sized up by the stranger in front of her, hand outstretched between them, that razor sharp katana lightly pressed against her chest. Finally, he removed the blade from in front of her, sliding it back into its sheath and ignoring her outstretched hand. He still hadn’t given her a name, but at least he wasn’t holding his blade on her anymore. That counted for something.

Dropping her hand, Mae leaned on the side of the truck. “So, do I get to know your name, or do I have to keep calling you _The Stranger_ in my head like we’re in some twisted western?”

“Are you always this talkative?”

“I haven’t seen anyone I could actually talk to in months, forgive me for wanting something of a conversation.”

“I’m not here to entertain you.”

“Of course not, though I still have yet to know why you _are_ here, since you didn’t have to stay in the back of my truck once we were away from that horde.”

And they were right back to a one sided conversation as The Stranger looked away, out towards what Mae assumed was the barn on the other side of the hayfield. Instead of answering her, he shifted in the bed of the truck, his hand gripping the edge as he started to pull himself up, but for some reason, he stopped halfway up, and simply started to slide his way to the tailgate, reaching over the edge to lower it. She eyed him as he moved, following slowly along the edge of the truck, and noticing that he seemed to be putting more weight on his right side than his left. She still held her tongue, waiting a few more moments to see…

When he reached the edge of the tailgate, his right leg swung over the edge without hesitation, stabilizing himself on the ground…but he hesitated with the left, moving slower, like he was testing how much weight he could put on it. It was a familiar motion, and since she felt she had a good guess at what was going on, she decided to speak up.

“Hold up, are you–” she started to say, reaching out instinctively to stop or steady him, she wasn’t sure. He knocked the closest hand aside, shooting her a glare.

“I’m fine.”

“I don’t think–”

“I said I’m fine.”

Mae huffed, stepping back, and then around so she was standing in front of him. “You know, I have a medical background, if you’re hurt, I can help– _really_ help.”

Well, _that_ caught his attention. He looked up at her with those probing eyes again, stopped right on the edge of the tailgate with both legs dangling over the edge, leaning forward. “What _kind_ of medical background?”

_Ah, shit…I was hoping he wouldn’t ask for that specific._

Fighting the rising blush in her cheeks, Mae planted herself as confidently as possible right in front of him. “Well…I was a vet before the world turned into this shitstorm.”

“There’s no way in _hell_ you’re a veteran, so by vet, you mean veterinarian,” he said bluntly before she’d even finished her sentence.

“Hey, that still means I have more medical knowledge than most of the remaining living population,” Mae said defensively over his rather loud ‘ _Tch_.’ “And I _do_ know the differences between treating humans and animals, if that’s what you’re worried about. So are you going to let me look at you, or not?”

He started to turn away, looking like he was about to refuse and insist that he was all right. Mae narrowed her eyes at him, and despite her better judgement telling her _not_ to, she reached out with one hand to stop him, the other hand giving his left leg an experimental nudge.

The Stranger let out a hiss of pain and pulled back, one of his hands twitching towards the blades sheathed at his side and knocking her helping hand aside once more.

“Did I say you could touch me?”

Well, at least she knew for sure that there was something wrong now.

“You’re being stubborn, and I’ve seen enough animals and people limping around on a leg injury to know what one looks like. If you keep trying to move around on it, that’s just going to make it worse–”

“I _know_ that–” He said through grit teeth, but Mae kept talking right over him before he could protest again.

“–so I’m going to look at it whether you like it or not. Before you do more damage cause you can’t even give me the benefit of the doubt enough to properly look at you,” she finished bluntly, already kneeling down in front of him to get a closer look at his leg.

And to think she’d once been a lot more soft-spoken and easygoing. The apocalypse tended to make people a lot more… _forceful_. It didn’t help that she was out of practice interacting with people.

Mae’s fingers probed at his leg much more gently this time, feeling for any breaks–though she figured he’d be showing more pain if he’d broken it–before she tried telling if it was a fracture or a simple sprain. The Stranger didn’t make a sound this time, though she felt his leg reacting to pain beneath her fingertips, other subtle twitches like the tightening of his grip on the tailgate’s edge giving her an idea that he _was_ in pain. And those reactions were coming when she applied a little more pressure closer to the bone.

“It’s looking like it might be a fracture. X-rays aren’t an option, so I can’t give you specifics or a truly one hundred percent sure answer, but I can tell you how, and I have the stuff, to treat it. I’m sorry to say a fracture involves a lot of time off your feet, though.”

“Figured as much,” he muttered in response. She wished he didn’t have that scarf wrapped around his face–maybe she’d be able to get a better idea of what he was thinking if she could see _all_ of his face.

“While I’m doing this, did you happen to get hurt anywhere else?”

He didn’t answer, though in the silence and with her closer proximity, she could hear his breathing, which seemed shallow and deliberate to her. Now that she was thinking about it, he had to have landed on his back or his side when he’d jumped into her truck. He’d been pushing himself up when she looked back. Maybe he’d suffered some kind of chest injury from the impact.

He stiffened as her hands moved upward, ignoring the gore on his jacket as her fingers probed around his chest, another hand reaching around to feel at his chest and side. He leaned away from the contact, demeanor somehow getting a little chillier.

“You can stop touching me now,” he said, his tone letting Mae know it wasn’t a suggestion.

Still, she ignored him as she applied a bit more pressure to his ribs. “As soon as I know what’s wrong, sure. Until then, you’re going to have to deal with the medical probing.”

As her hand put pressure on the upper part of the side of his ribs, she heard a sharp intake of breath, and his hands suddenly trapped her own, pushing them away from his chest. “It’s just some bruised ribs, I’ll be fine, just _stop touching me_.”

He had a point–it must have been weird to have a stranger poking and prodding at his injuries without really asking permission. She didn’t think anything of it because she was used to prodding animals who couldn’t do much to protest. Though in her defense, he _was_ hurt, he was being stubborn, and he kept not answering her questions.

Mae stood back up, hands on her hips as she gazed at his leg and let out a soft sigh. “Well…After some RICE, I’ll be able to give you a more definite answer, but in the meantime, I’d say play it safe so that if I’m right and that _is_ a fracture, you don’t make it worse–there’s not exactly ER operating rooms available if that leg ends up needing surgery. If I’m wrong and it’s just a sprain, you’ll only be down for two to four weeks. If I’m right…you’re looking at something more like six to eight.”

He didn’t ask what RICE meant, which gave Mae the impression he already knew what it meant. Perhaps he had some at least basic medical knowledge, then…though that thought only made his current resistance to her helping him all the more frustrating.

“It’s a sprain, and I heal fast–I’ll be fine in a few days,” he returned bluntly, moving like he was about to get off the truck. Once again, Mae stopped him.

“If you can walk five steps without that leg buckling from pain, then I’ll say _maybe_ to that. But for now, either way, you need to be off that leg for a few days before I even take another look at it.”

He ignored her and planted his right foot on the ground. “Five steps, you said?”

_Sweet Jesus, I think he’s actually going to try it…this should be interesting…_

With a look of single-minded determination in his eyes, The Stranger carefully placed his left foot on the ground, then paused. For a moment, Mae hoped that putting weight on the leg was making him rethink this attempt.

Gingerly, he stepped forward with his left, stiffening with fists clenching at his sides as he shifted the weight onto his left leg with an audible hiss. He’d cast his eyes down so she couldn’t gauge any degree of what he was thinking, but that reaction had been enough to tell her his leg hurt like a bitch.

_Is he going to try for the next–yes, it seems he is._

He lifted his leg again, placing it carefully on the ground in his third step, and attempting the fourth, putting his weight back on the left.

 _He might just make it to five_ , Mae thought in surprise, beginning to feel impressed as she watched him.

No sooner did she finish her thought, then The Stranger’s leg suddenly buckled half-way through his fourth step. Having been waiting for it, Mae was able to dart forward and catch him before he hit the ground, pulling one of his arms around her shoulders as she helped him up.

“Nearly: since you were almost able to walk on it the whole five steps, I’m willing to reduce my diagnosis to a severe sprain unless I see signs of a fracture after a few days rest. Either way, you’re still going to be on bedrest for a couple weeks. Let’s get you inside and see to treating that leg.”

He seemed to be making some sort of pained grumbling, the sound muffled to a rumble in his chest as she helped him up the three steps onto the farmhouse front porch, pulling him to lean on her the most whenever he’d normally be placing weight on his left. Just before the door, Mae stopped him once again, getting out from under his arm and letting him lean against the wall for stability.

“Hold on, let me just…” Mae muttered, starting to shrug off her bloodstained flannel, then leaning down to undo the ties on her boots.

“I keep whatever clothes got gorey on my run in this basket right here,” she explained, nudging a lidded wicker basket with her hip as she was untying the last boot, conscious of the fact The Stranger was watching her. “If you don’t mind, you can toss yours in there, too–I’ll go down to the river and clean ‘em once we’re done here. Doing it that way helps keep the house a little cleaner.”

For the first time since meeting him, he didn’t complain or even question what she said, already shrugging off the military duffel bag strapped onto his back, unzipping the tactical jacket to reveal a well-fit turtleneck, and untying the scarf from around his face. Finally, she could see more than jet black hair and eyes that seemed far more grey than blue now that they were out of the sun. Sadly, seeing the whole of his expression didn’t help to figure out what was going on in his head–he just seemed…indifferent. She’d have to keep watching his eyes for answers, it seemed.

He held out the clothes and bag to Mae as she straightened, reaching out to take the bundle from him. However, he held fast, catching her attention as he met her gaze.

“I’ll clean mine myself–that way I know it’s done right.”

Mae’s eyebrows rose slightly, but she didn’t protest, giving him a small nod. “All right then.”

_Looks like I’ll be hauling river water over later._

Once he had her agreement, he relinquished the clothes, which Mae tucked away into the basket for later, with her boots placed next to the basket.

Of course, there was gore on their jeans, too, but Mae wasn’t about to strip in front of him, or ask him to take his pants off. She’d just sit him down in a kitchen chair instead of the couch while she took care of his leg, and find something for him to change into in her to-be-scrapped clothes so he could claim the couch without getting gore all over it.

“I’ll deal with that later,” she said with a sigh, coming even with The Stranger again and feeling him put a hand on her shoulder to steady himself as she opened the door, sparing him a brief glance.

 _Oh…he’s_ shorter _than me!_

Once inside, Mae guided him towards the dining table on their left, getting the hint when every time she tried to pull his arm around her shoulder again to support him, he whacked the hand away. Instead he only reached out for her shoulder when he needed stability, doing a stubborn hop the thankfully short distance to the dining table, Mae pulling out a dining chair for The Stranger to sit in.

The first level of the farm house was an almost entirely open space, with the only wall separated rooms being the stairwell to the second floor, and the doorless foyer on its right that led to the back door. As a result, the kitchen, living room, and dining room took their own sections of one giant right angle shaped room. The kitchen took up the upright edge, the dining room had the corner, and the living room took the bottom edge.

“I’m suddenly even happier I found more wrappings today. I’ll be right back with the stuff for this,” Mae said once he was sitting, already doing a mental inventory of what she had and what he might need as she turned to make a run upstairs.

The top of the stairs revealed a T hallway, with the entrance to the master bedroom–her room–on the left, a door to the bathroom on the far end of the right, and down the middle hall were two doors on the right that led into a smaller guest bedroom and an office she had mostly turned into a storage room.

Painkillers were a must, for the ribs and his leg, so that was the first thing she went for, going into her bedroom and prying up one of the loose floorboards for one of her ‘valuables’ stashes, looking through its contents until she found what she wanted. NSAIDs–not acetaminophen–since they would help reduce any kind of inflammation. She made sure her board was back in place, then made her way to the bathroom, where she kept _some_ of her more easily found medical supplies under the sink, to get the bandages and tape. The last stop was the storage room for her scrap clothes stash–specifically the ones she hadn’t cut up for the odd project yet, hoping she had a pair of pants somewhere in there he could wear–even if he had to roll up the pant legs.

Once she had her best pants candidate and her supplies, Mae made her way back downstairs. The Stranger was still sitting where she left him, head doing a slow turn as he studied every inch of his surroundings. His gaze returned to Mae once she came down the stairs, eyebrows raising slightly at the sight of the pair of pants dangling off her arm.

“What, you think I’m letting you bedrest on my couch with those jeans? Hell no, I don’t want to have to clean it up,” Mae said in response, tossing the pants onto the tabletop before setting the bottle of NSAIDs next to his hand that was resting on the table. “Those are your painkillers. Go easy on them, I don’t need to tell you how hard it is to find those.”

The Stranger picked up the bottle and turned it over in his hands carefully as Mae drew up a chair opposite him, carefully reaching down and pulling his leg up as gently as she could to rest it in her lap. She ignored his look and slightly uncomfortable shift in his seat, starting to undo his shoelaces and rolling his pant leg partially up before she started to carefully ease his boot off. He stiffened beneath her grip, and she glanced up with a quick, mumbled, “Sorry,” before she continued easing his boot off.

Once his pant leg was rolled up to his knee, and his boot and sock was off, she finally started wrapping up his leg, trying to stay gentle while wrapping his leg tightly and securely– _properly_.

For a while, they sat in silence, Mae patiently wrapping up his injured leg while The Stranger studied her, slowly turning the pill bottle over in his hand.

“Why are you so hell bent on helping me? What do you want from me?” he finally said, breaking the silence.

“What, are you worried about being in debt to me or something?” Mae asked, glancing up at him with raised brows. His expression didn’t change, sharp eyes still watching her every movement, probing for some hidden motive, looking for a sign of ill intent. “Don’t be. The most I’d ask from you would be a little human interaction. If I decide that’s my price, you don’t think that’s going to kill you, do you Mr. The Stranger?”

“ _Tch_ ,” was his only reply as he looked away, out the windows that lined the front of the house, gaze fixated over the hayfield and the barn outside. A few more beats of silence passed, and as Mae neared the end of her wrapping, he spoke again. “Levi.”

Mae paused, processing the sharp but quiet word that had cut through the silence before she reached for the tape to finish up. “Levi…” she said slowly, feeling out the name as it fell from her lips. “Levi…Thank God, because it was getting really weird calling you The Stranger in my head.”

With his leg taped up, Mae scooted the chair back and wrapped up the leftover bandages as she got to her feet. “I’ll let you try those on while I head outside, I’ll be back in a moment–gotta get my stuff and all that,” Mae finished in a murmured response, placing the wrapping on the table and nodding towards the pants still sitting on the table before she headed out the front door.

Once outside, Mae made her way back to the truck, throwing open the truck’s back door and grabbing the gasoline canisters first, carrying them back to the farmhouse. She stopped in front of the lattice covered foundation, pulling back a panel to reveal her gas stash; only a few canisters at the moment, but at least the stash was getting two more today.

_No…One. I need to fill up the truck today. Almost forgot._

After stashing the two full canisters, grabbing a lighter one, and placing the lattice back in its place, Mae went back to the truck to fill the tank. Once that was done, she pulled her bow and backpack out of the truck, folding the bow up and picking up the empty canister to stash it again for later.

_It’s been long enough for him to get pants on, right? Even with the sprain?_

Mae hesitantly made her way back up to the stairs, knocking lightly on the front door. “Just making sure you’re decent before I walk in,” she called, listening for some kind of confirmation on the other side of the door.

There were a few moments that she assumed Levi–she couldn’t begin to explain how inwardly giddy it made her to finally have a name–was finishing getting decent again. After those few moments she stood on the porch waiting at the front door, she finally heard Levi’s voice call out, “You’re clear.”

Mae came back inside to the sight of Levi standing on one foot, gory pants in one hand and held out towards her, the loans almost fitting nicely on him–he had rolled the pant legs up some, but she wasn’t going to comment on it.

“Knocking to come into my own house…that’s a first,” she quipped as she took the dirty pants from him, partially poking briefly out the door to toss them into her wicker basket before she came back inside and continued. “There’s a guest bedroom upstairs, but I’d stay off that leg as much as possible for the first few days, so for now, I dub thee sole ruler of the couch until such a time you can upgrade to a bed by passing the trial of stairs.”

Levi stared at her for a solid minute, and to be honest, she almost broke into another babble of nonsense in an attempt to break the silence and get him to stop looking at her like that before he finally said, “If I’m going to be here for a few days, you have to stop talking like that.”

Mae blushed and shrugged. “The conversation is pretty one-sided right now, I think I’m trying to fill the empty air with twice the words.”

“Don’t. You don’t have to, so don’t try.”

“Fair enough,” Mae murmured, stepping aside as Levi hopped his way over to the cream couch settled directly in front of a living room centerpiece fireplace, a small coffee table between the couch and fireplace, a cushioned rocking chair on one side of the couch, and a recliner on the other. It was a cozy spot, at least, nothing too terrible–it wasn’t like she was restricting him to the dining table while he recovered.

“I’ve got some things to pass the time while you’re on bedrest–I’ve got a few books, I’m sure if I look I can find cards or some kind of game somewhere…I’m sure I can find something to keep your hands busy, anyway,” she said, setting her bow on the dining room table for the moment as Levi eased down onto the couch facing the windows, letting his injured leg stretch out across the couch and putting a few pillows below it to elevate it. They still needed the I in RICE, but Mae hadn’t figured out a way to make ice and keep it from melting without power, so ice unfortunately wasn’t an option.

Levi ignored her ramblings about finding something for him to do in his spare time, instead keeping his gazed fixated on that goddamn hayfield outside. Mae was starting to get a bit jealous that it seemed to be claiming so much attention from her first human interaction in months.

“Are you using the hay?”

Mae blinked, thrown off by the question as she glanced out the windows towards the field in front of the farmhouse. “Not really. It’s pretty much decorative for the country painting I’m never going to attempt. Why?”

“What do you want for it?”

Another one of their increasingly common silences passed.

“…You want the hay?”

Levi slowed down what he was saying when he saw her staring at him like he’d grown another head, speaking like he was talking to a child. “What do you want for the hay?”

“Nothing. I don’t have a use for it…I’m not losing anything if you take it. Have at it.”

Now it was Levi’s turn to stare at her blankly. Apparently he hadn’t been expecting that answer. “There’s got to be _something_ you want for it.”

Mae shrugged. “I mean, if you’re looking at it as a constant supply, I suppose that means I get to see a non-hostile living being regularly. Take the time to at least have something of a passing conversation, and I’ll consider us even.”

And now she was getting that probing look, his eyes sharp as the steel their color emulated, trying to pierce through her and get inside her head, his arm laying on the back of the couch, one of his fingers tapping thoughtfully and softly against the couch.

“No one still alive is this giving. This _trusting_. What’s your angle?”

Mae let out an admittedly frustrated sigh, coming around to stand directly in front of Levi, smack between Levi and his view of the field. “I already have everything I need. Everything but human contact– _that’s_ what I need most now. To me, I _am_ getting something I desperately need in return, even if you don’t think so.” Mae held his gaze, folding her arms over her chest. “So that’s my price. You don’t have to be a friend or anything, maybe we end up not being able to stand each other, I don’t know…I just want someone I can see every now and then, someone I can talk to that might actually say a few words back. Even if it’s just a few minutes of passing conversation, I’ll consider that payment enough.”

While Levi didn’t answer or necessarily agree to anything, since he didn’t ask any more questions, Mae assumed that was the end of the conversation. Dropping her folded arms, she shrugged her hiking backpack off her shoulders, turning to head back upstairs.

“Get some rest. I won’t be making dinner until after my post-run chores, so there’ll be plenty of time to kill until then.”


	4. Baby Steps

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, as I'm sure you're all aware, things have been c.r.a.z.y.

**_*Mae’s POV*_ **

Thankfully, there wasn’t that much gore on Mae’s clothes from today’s trip because of the scarcity of Rotters while she’d wandered the town. So it didn’t take long for her to scrub out the stains that were on her shirt–it just took some elbow grease and some numbness in her fingers after her hands were plunged in the water so long. There was a shaded spot by the bank that was thick with trees, giving her plenty of cover away from any unwelcome eyes while she worked while she had a clear view around her immediate surroundings. It was a decently long walk away from the farmhouse, which meant she was going to have to haul water back an unpleasant distance so Levi would have water to do his laundry. He could probably rest comfortably on the steps with his leg elevated on one of her gas tanks or something. On the bright side, she just needed to haul the water over, he was the one who had to scrub all that gore and grass stains out of the clothes, not her. She could settle for that trade.

Though, on another downside, it was going to take about six trips, three to the river and three back, simply for the laundry today. Thank God she wasn’t out of shape.

Six trips later, with her laundry put up on a line in the backyard between two trees, two buckets of water sitting at the foot of the steps as well as a large gas cannister for Levi to elevate his leg on, and her arms aching far more than she wanted to admit, Mae skipped up the steps, heaving a sigh as she walked back inside. Levi was still stretched out on the couch, though considering he was facing the front of the house and could see out the window, he’d probably been watching her make three times as many trips as normal simply to get him set up to do his laundry.

“All right, I got you all set up to do your laundry on the steps, if you’re okay with doing that now,” Mae said, clawing back some sweaty strands of hair that were plastered to her forehead after lugging the full buckets all the way from the river to the house. Levi was already rising off the couch halfway through her sentence, being mindful of his leg but still moving with overall ease as he started for the door. His hand trailed across the occasional surface, looking like a simple passing touch, but Mae was suspicious it was actually for a bit more added stability as he did an odd sort of stubborn hobble to and out the door. Considering all the fuss he’d made so far about helping him, Mae let him be stubborn, so long as he wasn’t putting any–or at least not much–weight on his injured leg.

“I’ll make dinner while you’re doing that!” she called after him, the only response the sound of the door shutting behind him.

_Not too friendly…I guess I understand why, he has an injury that could put him on bedrest for a month or longer which could be a death sentence in certain sticky apocalypse situations, he’s stuck with a stranger, I can only imagine what happened to draw practically all the Rotters in town to him…but still._

Shaking her head, Mae started flickering through different rooms of the house both upstairs and downstairs, gathering the things she needed for dinner, getting a fire started in the fireplace, and even remembering to grab a few things for Levi to pass the time with since he was going to be stuck on the couch for a while. Dinner ingredients was the last thing she gathered, already grabbing one of the bouillon cubes she’d found on her scavenging trip today, a mix of white and black beans, water she’d already purified and stored for drinking and cooking…

She hesitated in the kitchen, hand hovering over a stash of some of her more…richer ingredients. Or at least, ingredients she was hesitant to use because she’d noticed her guest was so sharp. Sure, she was trusting him enough to let her into her home, but he was also injured, so she felt she might be able to take him in a fight if things turned sour. And while she had shared some of her medical supplies with him, she hadn’t showed him where she was hiding them because she didn’t trust him that much, yet. Did she really want to use ingredients that could tip off her sharp guest to the fact that she was a little more well off than most, that she had a comfortable set up that allowed her a source for fresh seasonings? Did she want to suggest that what she was putting in their dinner wasn’t all scavenged, that some of it…was grown? That the beans weren’t canned and pilfered from town? That she had a spot she could grow green chilis?

Not to mention, she liked using those chilis in the winter, so she stored as much as she could. Did she really want to tap into that storage now? Normally what she was making she’d save for the winter, but Levi was injured, and she wanted to cook something a little more feel-good because of that. He was in a shitty situation, she knew that, and she was willing to try and make it better for him.

Cause even if she still did have the survival sense and caution to not blindly, completely trust him right away, she _was_ trying to build a bridge here, not raze the entire forest to the ground. Even if the basic caution levels of today’s world wanted her to _not_ do certain things, she had to in order to extend an olive branch and hopefully get someone to talk to.

She didn’t want to go crazy from the isolation, especially while knowing what was happening to her but being unable to do anything about it.

She didn’t want to survive if it meant withering away forgotten in some quiet corner of the world.

She didn’t want to be alone anymore.

Was it too much to ask that she had _someone_ in her life again, someone that–from what she had seen–was perfectly capable of taking care of themselves so she wouldn’t have to worry about them. She didn’t care if he was a friend, a neighbor, or even the old world equivalent of that delivery guy you saw so much you were on a first name basis, she just wanted another human being somehow involved in her life again.

_Screw it._

Mae shook her head, grabbing green chilis, onions, garlic, oregano, and cloves without any further hesitation. If she wanted to make a change, she had to throw caution to the wind. She was gonna be kind even if this ended up being a mistake and her guest turned on her. She had to be willing to trust and make an effort with people if she wanted people in her life again. Sure, there were a greater amount of _dangerous_ people left in the world that meant she had to be careful, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any decent people left. She wasn’t going to know if it was the right choice if she didn’t try, and she was already this deep into this situation, what was the point of hesitating now? He hadn’t hurt her, he’d let her help him, even with his stubborn ‘I can take care of myself’ attitude. So far, she had no reason _not_ to trust him except paranoia. She’d keep giving him more trust little at a time until he gave her a reason not to.

* * *

_***Levi’s POV*** _

With his turtleneck sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his leg propped up on the gas canister as comfortably as he could manage, Levi scrubbed at the plethora of stains on his clothes. He was glad to have something to do with his hands, something he enjoyed, nonetheless, but his gaze still roamed across his surroundings while he worked.

There was plenty of open space stretching out in front of the farmhouse that gave Mae enough of a warning if one of the ghouls or a group of them were coming–something that would come in handy if and when that horde in town decided to migrate, which could lead them this way. He didn’t care much for the treeline, though. It gave too much cover for an approaching horde or a hostile group of people–by the time either broke through the forest, it would be too late to try moving. It was either standing and fighting, _maybe_ escaping with next to nothing in the truck if Mae managed to avoid getting shot by a hostile group in the process, escaping on foot out the back, or, in the case of a horde, she could try to hunker down and wait it out until it passed. That all depended on if she had the nerves to withstand being surrounded by a horde for an unknown length of time, and enough supplies to last a week or more in case the horde took a while to pass. He didn’t know what her food situation was–yet–though she seemed to be set with her other supplies. She was apparently comfortable enough to willingly give him pain meds–not the cheap kind, either–and was confident enough to not even ask for anything in return from him when he’d asked for her hay.

He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

This was some sort of trick, right? Was she trying to get him more and more indebted to her before asking something truly taxing from him? Did she just want him indebted to her indefinitely so she could continue to ask things of him in the future, no matter how much he didn’t want to do them? She couldn’t be doing all of this for him out of a good-hearted nature and a simple desire to talk to someone.

Then again…if she was as well off as he suspected with what he had seen of her supplies…

He hadn’t been the most sociable person even before the world went to shit, so it didn’t bother him being alone, and he’d still had Scout and Ash to talk to if he really wanted to. But Mae really was out here by herself from what he could tell so far–that could wear a person down after so long, he was pretty sure there’d been studies about that to prove as much.

Only time would tell if she was truly genuine or if she was planning on pulling the rug out from under him when she _thought_ he least expected it. He’d have to stay on guard, and wait and see what her true intentions really were. It wasn’t like he was able to do much else in the meantime.

As Levi finished with the last of his laundry, his gaze returned to the far end of the field, attention caught by the sight of movement amongst the trees. After a few more moments of following the distant motion with his gaze, a ghoul finally broke through the treeline, stumbling blindly towards the farmhouse with a lazy, unguided gait.

Levi was already getting to his feet, hand twitching towards the katana at his side before the door opened behind him and Mae appeared, strolling casually past him with bow and a single arrow in hand.

“Dinner’s nearly ready, if you want to head back inside. I’ll go ahead and hang your clothes up with mine, so you can just leave those there,” she called, knocking the arrow and partially pulling the string back.

Mae whistled, just loud enough that the lone ghoul would hear, but soft enough it was faint even to Levi’s ears, which lowered the risk of drawing any other ghouls towards them. Levi started to head inside, still watching Mae as the ghoul turned its attention towards her and starting running at her. She simply brought her bow to a full draw, held perfectly still for maybe two or three seconds, then released, the arrow sailing right through the ghoul’s eye before it could even close half the distance to her. With one last glance around the treeline, Levi tore his gaze from Mae as she made her way to retrieve the arrow, and made his way inside.

If she was good enough with that bow to hit infected barreling towards her with one clean head shot, surely she was decent at game hunting, too. Sure, you couldn’t get a rabbit or a deer to come at you like you could an infected, but moving around towns to scavenge also required a certain level of stealth to avoid drawing the attention of too many ghouls. Put that together with her aim, she was probably perfectly capable of bagging a few rabbits or squirrels, perhaps even a deer if she was lucky enough to come across one.

Levi paused, halfway to the couch. Was he really already calculating what more she could possibly offer him if they _did_ enter into some kind of agreement going forward? He hadn’t even decided if he trusted her or not, yet. Then again, it wasn’t like he could shut that part of his brain off–it was all about survival these days, and whether he decided she was a potential ally (something he hadn’t had in a long time) or a threat, he needed to know what she was capable of, and what she had.

Levi resumed his position on the couch with his leg propped up on throw pillows, breathing in the strong scent of…chili? He looked over at the fireplace to what must have once been a metal gallon paint can now being used as a makeshift campfire pot, the source of the smell. The scent opened his airways as he tried to pick out what he was smelling exactly, able to pick out the smell of chicken easily.

There was no way there was actual chicken in that can, was there? He hadn’t seen any chickens running around the farmyard, and from his experience finding a can of chicken that was still good was like winning the lottery these days.

Aside from the distracting aroma of whatever was in that makeshift pot, Levi also noticed there was now a candle, a flip lighter, and a few books on the coffee table, all within arm’s reach. He picked through the titles to see what options she’d given him, a small frown on his face as he did so.

A compilation of a thousand poems, a compilation of short stories, the novelization of the original trilogy of Star Wars, and the last two Lord of the Rings books. All but the short stories were pocket book sized, so maybe she could justify packing them around if they looked smaller…even if they were still thick books. You had to keep some kind of entertainment when it was just you out here, right? For him, it was pretty much survival work and cleaning what he could with what he had. For Mae, it looked like books were what she preferred.

Well, at least there was some variety and he wouldn’t be stuck looking at the same book over and over again.

Mae came back inside, not a speck of blood on her and hands shining with water after putting his clothes on the line, setting her bow back in its spot by the door before she disappeared briefly into the kitchen After coming back with two bowls and spoons, she started divvying out what was in the can. Levi noticed a lack of white meat in what he could now visually confirm as a chili of some kind as Mae passed him his share, though he definitely smelled chicken, much stronger now that he had a steaming hot bowl in hand.

She’d managed to get her hands on broth, then. A find he envied her for, though the envy was abated since she was sharing it with him right now. And even though the chili was missing the meat, it looked like it had everything else.

As they ate in silence, Levi mulled over the taste, doing his damndest not to look at Mae and tip her off to the fact that he was coming to quite a few conclusions simply from the chili. There were herbs in this, and onions, maybe garlic, not to mention _two_ different kinds of beans–not only was it the fact that she _had_ these ingredients that caught his attention, but it was also the fact that it tasted _fresh_. He knew the difference between processed shit that had been sitting for a long time on a shelf, and actual, fresh foods. He hadn’t seen a blatant garden around her farmhouse, yet, but now he was sure that she was comfortable enough and had been here long enough to be growing things. The only thing that was definitely scavenged for this was the broth and _maybe_ some of the beans. She didn’t have livestock (clearly, who did, in times like these?), but she was _growing_ things. And here she was, wasting more of her resources on him, wanting him to come by regularly and at least take her hay–he could probably work out a trade of some kind for whatever she was growing if he kept an eye out for something she _didn’t_ have, something he could give in return since he was positive the currency of _companionship_ only extended so far.

_Slow down, don’t jump the gun, you’re smarter than that. Figure out if you can trust her or not before you start planning for a trade partnership of some kind._

This all had to be too good to be true, there had to be a catch somewhere. He just hoped he could figure out what it was sooner, rather than later.

* * *

_***Mae’s POV*** _

Even if her current guest was frustratingly hard to converse with, at least she wasn’t alone anymore. Levi was a man of few words, it seemed, while Mae seemed to have too many to spare. He didn’t _stop_ her from chattering at him, but he didn’t respond much, which made it hard to continue conversations. As such, Mae found herself continuously trying to think of ways (with increasing complexity) to get the stoic man to have to respond to whatever she said. It was starting to get to the point she was sure she was simply making a fool of herself every time she tried. At this point, she was positive he knew what she was doing, and was purposely making it difficult for her for his own amusement. She hadn’t forgotten that one time she could have sworn she saw his lips twitch towards a smile, or the amused glint in his eyes when she’d finally thrown in the towel one day with a pout and a huff of frustration. If he really was doing it on purpose…well, it was frustrating, but at least she knew he had a sense of humor, even if at the moment it was at her expense.

Of course, she was also rapidly running out of topics to talk about that didn’t intrude into personal subject matters she knew for a fact were still far, _far_ off limits.

Today, however, there was bound to be a conversation of some sorts, since she was finally checking his leg to decide once and for all if it was fractured or sprained. Which meant she was also going to be telling him whether he was stuck on her couch even longer, or if he was going to be allowed to start moving around again. For the time being, Levi’s steel blue eyes were trained on Mae as she prodded at his leg, eyes looking for bruising or swelling, fingers feeling for sensitive spots along bone or muscle…

“Well, it’s not fractured,” she eventually announced, noticing that some of the tension seemed to leave Levi’s shoulders at the news. “But it is still a rather nasty sprain. You’re going to need another two, three weeks out of the action to make a full recovery. More time off your feet at the start, and then slowly getting back to moving around–”

Levi was already shaking his head, moving to sit up and pull his leg away but finding himself stopped by Mae keeping a vice grip where her hand was still resting just above his calf. “I can’t wait that long, I have to get back–”

As he tried to stand again, Mae pushed him back down with more effort than she cared to admit. “You’re going to stay on bedrest if you don’t want to fuck up your leg any worse than it already is. Would you rather be stuck on bedrest for a month or more?” she pointed out sharply.

Levi scowled, looking out the window once more and stewing silently with his thoughts as Mae got started re-wrapping his leg. He seemed like a rather practical person, so Mae figured that after telling him trying to go running around on a still healing leg was going to simply restrict him to more bed-rest to heal a worse injury, that would be the end of it.

Apparently not.

“There’s a horse where I’ve been staying. It’s why I need the hay. What I left for him will be running out either today or tomorrow.” As Levi spoke, his entire posture was taunt, like the information was being forcibly pulled from him by necessity. He wasn’t looking at Mae, either, gaze still stubbornly fixed out the window. “That’s why I can’t wait. I need to get back.”

Mae leaned back, feeling her molars start to grind together out of annoyance as she let out a long breath through her clenched teeth. “What the hell?”

Levi’s gaze snapped back towards Mae, and he appeared genuinely surprised to see that her reaction to the news was annoyed anger.

“You should have said something earlier, this could have been handled better,” she huffed, pausing in her wrapping and taking a moment to consider what she could do. It wasn’t like she was going to let his horse starve. He needed to be off that leg as much as possible, but she didn’t have a trailer or anything to put a horse in if she was going to make a retrieval trip by herself, not to mention she doubted Levi was going to let her go to his safehouse by herself when they hardly knew each other. Sure, she’d let him see hers, but that didn’t mean he trusted her enough to show her his–or at least let her wander around unsupervised. At least while Levi was here, he couldn’t really move around, and the ground floor was open enough she could see if he tried hobbling about. They’d both have to go. That way he could be sure she wasn’t sticking her nose where it didn’t belong, and they could have one of them drive back while the other rode the horse–preferably Mae, so Levi wouldn’t be jostling that leg too much. As for what to actually do with the horse…well, there was plenty of hay, here, and it was a _farmhouse_ for a reason. She’d have to do some work, but she could set something temporary up in time for the horse to come down tomorrow, at the earliest.

Shaking her head, Mae resumed wrapping his leg. “Today, I’ll go make sure the barn is in stable condition–no holes or anything like that, set up a spot for your horse, get some hay out of the field, and tomorrow we can bring…you said him? We can bring _him_ down here so he’s looked after and fed, and I can still keep an eye on you so you don’t mess up that leg. And I can start looking at fixing that fence so they’re not cooped up in that barn the whole time you’re recovering.”

“I don’t want–” Levi started to say in what was surely protest at the thought of Mae finding out where he was living, but she quickly cut him off.

“Well how else are you going to get up there and back down without me? I don’t have a trailer for you to put a horse in, and if you try getting your horse down here yourself, you’ll probably put a lot of stress on that leg and end up stuck down here with me even longer. I’m coming so life is easier for both of us. End of story.”

Levi’s eyes flashed in annoyance. “If you’re so keen on getting me talking, are you ever gonna stop interrupting me?”

“Probably not when you’re just going to be difficult,” Mae sassed. She wished she had a pair of glasses to peer over as she looked up at him, simply to complete the effect. Levi’s scowl only deepened, retreating back into that silence that Mae had been going nuts trying to crack all this time. Ah, well, at least they’d had _something_ of a conversation today. It was a hell of a lot better than talking to the sky or the occasional rotter.


End file.
